Every piece of advice for TTC, food, lifestyle, the works

[ScarlettInSpace]

Chuck 'em all at me.

I'm over a year into this TTC malarky and with 1 tube & a hycosy looming [whether this month or next is dependant on whether the surgeon has time to see me when he gets back from his holiday in South Africa ] I'm going to throw every bloody thing I can at it over the next couple of months.

So far in the last 12 months I've done the obvious: cut out caffeine, just about stopped smoking ish and tried to limit alcohol intake apart from during AF as I have a generally sod it attitude for those 4 days stopped taking ibuprofen for pain-relief, aiming to limit OH to SWI every other day, vits & folic acid every day obv...

What other pearls of wisdom do you all have?

Should I be eating 7 cranberries on the 7th day at the 7th hour?

Tried and tested, old wives tales, or even just amusing anecdotes, please let me know what else I can be doing to chivvy mother nature along...

HI bean thanks for the congrats. We were TTC 6 months with this one so not long compared to lots of ladies on here but long enough for me to experience the emotional ups and downs of TTC. I don't know if soya makes a difference - i started a thread about it on here after reading something about it online. I do know that the month after we cut it out we conceived (but perhaps it can't be anything to do with soya as it would need more than a month to get out of my system?) I didn't know about dairy being 'bad' for TTC. We eat a lot of cheese and when we cut out soya milk we were having full fat every morning on cereal. It's all a bit contradictory isn't it.

I've also read about manuka honey - had some last month but more because i drink it for colds and i had a bad cold.

As for the amount of shagging... for DS we did it twice in the fertile time and this time we were bonking every other day for 6 months. bloody exhausting but it's been good for the relationship!

moggy - don't worry about venting. You're safe doing that here. Completely understand your situation, it is gutting every months when it doesnt happen and as nice as DHs/DPs can be for some reason it's not the same for them.

Good luck to you all xxx

Hi again Berries - 6 months is long enough, though now I'm into my second year I would welcome only a 6-month wait... I'm lucky that I had DS almost instantly when I was 37/38 though.

Can you advise me if you think the CBFM 'highs' were a good time for SWI, or did you save yourself for the peaks? My DP isn't a great one for SWI (and has lazy wrigglers) so I need to time it quite carefully. I have just got a CBFM and we SWI'd on the first and only high but have had stage fright on first peak, unfortunately.

Thanks!

Watching this with interest as am trying to conceive #2 - so far this is our 11th cycle so really hoping we got it this month so we don't hit the 1 year mark. We were trying for 18 months for DD. still not entirely sure what the problem was, although DH's swimmers are quite low/slow and we don't do a lot (enough in my view) of SWI - so we tend to just get 1 or 2 times around the time I am ovulating (bean - I know what you mean about timing it quite carefully - I find this quite stressful).

The things we did differently the month DD was conceived: holiday to Egypt, referral to infertility consultant, as a result we weren't as worried that month (but you can't fake this - we tried to 'relax and forget about it' many times, with no success) and I lost a bit of weight / did some more exercise.

DH is avoiding hot baths when I am ovulating (should he avoid them completely?) and we don't drink a lot of alcohol (but he does drink quite a bit of coffee). I might buy some brazil nuts. I'll be keeping an eye out for other things that might boost his swimmers.

FidgetPie - sounds like we are in a similar boat, though I was luckier with DS - got him after only a couple of cycles trying (I've had around 18 cycles since AF returned after b-fing; about 12 of them properly TTC). I hope this time round is quicker for you! And I'm an old baggage so probably not uber-fertile these days.

Yes your DH should have showers instead - all the time. Spermies take 90 days to make in his body, so you need a good 90 days of low caffeine, minimal alcohol, no hot bollocks and possibly manvits? Mine is totally off booze and trying acupuncture...

IMHO we don't get enough SWI because of the low/slow wrigglers. I mean, I think the two are linked - greater sex drive = better quality spermies. But there's no science in that is there?!

Holiday sounds good; I'll be waiting until July for a BFP then.

Yes - if only I could relax to order; the amount of times I've been told this.... grrrr.

Anyway - good luck. You got there once, you'll do it again.

Hi Bean - i totally get what you mean about timed sex. it's rubbish and stressful isn't it. We were doing it every other day from the first high on the CBFM and always did it the first peak. Most months we did it on both peaks but not the month we conceived. Then we had just done it every other day and the first peak. It sounds very unhelpful but i think some of it it just luck - i kind of visualise the sperm and the egg passing like in some random romcom and then try and visualise them getting together. God i sound fucking nuts. What i am trying to say is the month it happened i was very positive. Told myself i'd had enough. Threw out all the tampons to tell myself i wouldn't need them and started telling DH "when we find out i'm pregnant". TBH it was a bit weird when we found out i was.....

Anyway - i'm sounding crazier by the minute so i'll go.....

Loving the craziness, Berries - well it did the trick. It is luck - some of it, though in our case it's got a lot to do with age. Mind you our first pg was instant, healthy and we had a pretty quick homebirth (mainly due to positive visualisation there I think - hypnobirthing) when I was 38, so not that bad considering.

Funnily enough I have been a bit like that with DP of late - he wasn't sure about another DC so it's been a slow haul getting him to agree/understand/give up booze etc. Now I feel safe to talk about our second baby.

Still - need to actually beat the TTC battle.

I only had one high this first month on CBFM - and dtd - but had been dtd every other day anyway from about cd4! I think next month I will aim to hit first peak but still dtd every other day iyswim.

Thanks for advice. It's so great that you got there - have a happy pg and birth and toddler years, etc etc

Thanks bean - fingers crossed it all works out.
I'm wishing you lots of luck too and sure you'll get there. The power of the mind is amazing and if you've hypno'd your way through it once there's no reason you can't go it again! Good luck hon x

Aw thanks; it always helps when people are encouraging. When's your due date? I shall keep it in my mind and do some long-distance poz visualisation!

oooh thanks! i guess somewhere near the end of october. Just keeping everything crossed (including legs now DH has done his bit!!) that it all goes ok. I'll look forward to your announcement soon :)